THOHOYANDOU – In last week’s edition, we published a story of Mrs Azwinndini Magret Mulaudzi (37) of Hamutsha Village who said that that she was gravely shocked when she was told that she was married to a certain man, when she went to apply for her daughter’s birth certificate at the Johannesburg offices for the Department of Home Affairs two years ago.

According to her, she was told that she would only be assisted on condition that she was in the company of her husband or if she was in possession of her husband’s identity document. After telling the official who was assisting her that the man she was said to be married to (Hameed Ullah) is a stranger to her, she was then advised to go and make an affidavit at the nearest police station to that effect.

When she submitted the affidavit on another day, the official told her to be patient, saying cases of a similar nature normally take long to investigate. According to her, each time when she went to make some follow-ups on her case, she was advised to be patient.

Realizing that she was unable to apply for her daughter’s child support grant due to the unavailability of the birth certificate, Mulaudzi decided to contact Mirror for assistance. When Mirror contacted the Department of Home Affairs last week, they told us that they would investigate the matter as a matter of urgency.

This week, the department confirmed that they had completed their investigations into the matter. In their investigation report they indicated that they can not expunge Mrs Mulaudzi’s marriage because it appears that she had willfully entered into the marriage with Mr Hameed Ullah on December 17, 1999.

The report further indicates that the department has advised Mrs Mulaudzi in writing to lodge an application at her own cost to the High Court of South Africa for an annulment of the marriage or alternatively file for divorce. “In the event that Mrs Mulaudzi was persuaded to sign the marriage register under fraudulent pretences, the complainant should prove this in court,” reads an extract from the report.

Reacting to the report, Mrs Mulaudzi reiterated the fact that she did not sign the marriage register as mentioned in the report. She said that the signature that is appearing on the marriage register is not hers. She further indicated that she did not have enough money to challenge the marriage in court as advised by the department.